English food is enjoying a renewed vitality after decades spent in the shadow of European and other cuisines. Michael Smith's highly acclaimed book is centred on eighteenth-century recipes, but also delves back into Elizabethan and Stuart kitchens, and his skill in adapting old dishes for the contemporary cook puts almond soup, caveached sole and asparagus and bacon fraze within easy reach of today's reader. Traditionally, English cooking was generous in its use of herbs and spices and adventurous in its combining of flavours, and Michael Smith's wide-ranging research uncovers dishes with a surprisingly modern air: mustard soup, salmon in red wine and gooseberry and rosemary ice-cream, for example, sit alongside the classic potted meats and fish. For too long, breakfast and tea have been seen as the only meals at which English cooking has anything to offer the world. This refreshingly contemporary collection of classic recipes proves once and for all that the inventiveness and diversity of English food deserve to be recognised - and enjoyed.
